Yes, it is a friendly forum! I spent a couple of years in South Africa, a 24-hour journey from my home state, and a lot of time in Asia, over 34-hours, and thousands of dollars away.

One of my uncles has custody of the family 'Irish landscape'. Immigrants got so homesicd that they would commission itinerant oil painters to do these large idealized landscapes of green, green Ireland. My family worked in coal mines, so I imagine they were even more eager to be reminded of green.